President Vucic: KFOR opposes Serbian forces in Kosovo Protests in Iran: Two more demonstrators executed

According to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, the NATO-led security force KFOR stationed in Kosovo refuses to allow up to 1,000 Serbian soldiers to move into independent Kosovo. Vucic announced this on Sunday on pro-government private broadcaster Pink TV. Vucic had requested that Serbian troops be sent to the former Serbian province before the end of the year. He accused the KFOR command of humiliating the Serbs with the negative answer.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Serbia did not recognize this move and to this day claims the territory of Kosovo. The leadership in Serbia repeatedly creates tensions, using the Serb ethnic group, some of whom live in a compact settlement area in northern Kosovo. By the end of 2022, militant Serbs had set up barricades in a dozen places in the north of Kosovo, blocking, among other things, the access roads to two border crossings into Serbia.

Vucic had requested the deployment of the Serbian security forces, citing tensions created at the time by the arrest of an ex-police officer of Serbian descent. He allegedly incited attacks on election authority officials. KFOR’s refusal, which itself initially did not comment on the matter, was to be expected. The protection force has been in Kosovo since 1999 with a UN mandate.

Tensions rose again over the weekend, this time in southern Kosovo. An off-duty soldier from the Kosovo security forces fired on Serb civilians near the town of Strpce on Friday, injuring a 21-year-old man and an 11-year-old boy. The suspected shooter was arrested by Kosovo police shortly afterwards. He has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Several thousand Serbs took to the streets in Strpce on Sunday to mark the incident. The demonstrators spoke out for peaceful coexistence with their Albanian neighbors, the Kosovo Serb news portal “radiokim.net” reported. (sda/dpa)